Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Scarborough is a town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10–230 feet above sea level, from the harbour rising steeply north and west towards limestone cliffs. The older part of the town lies around the harbour and is protected by a rocky headland.

Scarborough is the largest holiday resort on the Yorkshire Coast and largest seaside town in North Yorkshire. The town has fishing and service industries, including a growing digital and creative economy, as well as being a tourist destination.

Economy Scarborough's fishing industry is still active, though much reduced in size. The working harbour is home to a fish market including a shop and wooden stalls where fresh, locally-caught seafood can be purchased by the public. A seaweed farm has been in operation since 2018, with a licence to go into a large-scale commercial operation from 2019. SeaGrown have an intent to move into the bioplastics market.

The tourism trade continues to be a major part of the local economy with Scarborough being the second most-visited destination in England by British holidaymakers. While weekend and mid-week-break trade are tending to replace the traditional week-long family holiday, the beaches and attractions are busy throughout summer, a contrast to quieter winter months.

Scarborough's town centre has many major shopping chains alongside boutique independent shops. As well as a main pedestrianised shopping street (home to various chain stores and eateries) and the Brunswick shopping centre, boutique stores can be found on Bar Street and St Thomas Street. The town also has an indoor market with a large range of antique shops and independent traders in its vaults, and a smaller market on the South Bay. Boyes, a discount department store chain which has over 65 stores across the north is based at Eastfield, on the outskirts of Scarborough. Its flagship store is located in Queen Street.

Industries Manufacturers based in Scarborough include the Plaxton Company (a division of Alexander Dennis) which has been building coaches and buses since 1907 Sirius Minerals which is developing a potash mine near Whitby has its headquarters in Scarborough. McCain Foods has a factory in the town for over 50 years, and sponsored the previous football stadium. Scarborough power station supplied electricity to the town and the surrounding area from 1893 to 1958. It was owned and operated by the Scarborough Electric Supply Company Limited from 1893 to 1925, then by Scarborough Corporation until the nationalisation of utilities by the Attlee ministry in 1948. The coal-fired power station had an electricity generating capacity of 7 MW prior to its closure in October 1958.

Creative industries Creative industries have been cited as playing a vital role in the regeneration of Scarborough; a report in 2005 estimated that they comprised 19% of the town's economy. They were also a major focus of Scarborough's winning entry in the 2008 Enterprising Britain competition, with representatives from Woodend Creative Workspace and Scarborough-based Electric Angel Design representing the town in the Yorkshire and Humber regional heats. In the finals in London on 16 October 2008, Scarborough won the title of Britain's Most Enterprising Town, and subsequently went on to win the European Enterprise Awards as Great Britain's representative, on 13 May 2009 in Prague.

In 2010 the town was the winner of the 'Great Town Award', as nominated by the Academy of Urbanism, beating Chester and Cambridge respectively.

Railway Scarborough railway station is close to the town centre and runs services from York, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street on the North TransPennine Express route and from Hull on the Yorkshire Coast Line. It has the longest station seat in the world at 152 yards (139 m) in length. The town used to be connected to Whitby, via the Scarborough and Whitby Railway along the Yorkshire coast, but this closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts. There is also Seamer railway station in the suburb of Crossgates.

There are two operational funicular railways, both situated on South Bay. An additional funicular exists on the South Bay but no longer operates and two funiculars on North Bay have been demolished. An electric tramway service with six routes was provided by the Scarborough Tramways Company between 1904 and 1931, after which it was bought by the council and replaced by omnibuses.

Water The town has transport links to Hull which runs frequent services to northern Europe.